Latest news with #JanetBrown
National Post
29-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
Poll finds that Alberta-Ottawa tensions are boosting Smith's popularity
OTTAWA — Separatist winds are lifting the political sails of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, according to a study from an Alberta pollsters. Article content Article content The provincewide poll, taken this month by Janet Brown, found that Smith's popularity has ticked upward from the same time last year, giving her a double-digit edge over rival Naheed Nenshi. Article content Brown told the National Post that the perception that Smith is better at dealing with Ottawa is part of what's driving her favourables. Article content Article content 'Right now… the thing that we see that's most strongly correlated with (Smith's) support numbers, is the relationship with Ottawa,' said Brown. Article content Brown noted that Smith is doing especially well with the 'middle third' of Albertans who still identify strongly as Canadians, but still think that the province is being treated unfairly by Ottawa. Article content 'They don't necessarily want to separate, but they don't want the status quo either… and the NDP hasn't really been speaking to this group,' said Brown. Article content Brown noted that, on the question of identity, Albertans were split neatly into thirds, with 32 per cent saying they felt most attached to Alberta, 34 per cent saying they felt more attached to Canada, and 33 per cent saying they were attached to both equally. Article content Smith spoke directly to this third, ambivalent group in a livestreamed address to Albertans earlier this month. Article content 'And then there are hundreds of thousands of Albertans that probably feel a lot like I do — that are deeply frustrated with the way our province has been mistreated (but) still believe there is a viable path (for Alberta) to succeed and prosper within a united Canada,' Smith told viewers. Article content Nenshi, by contrast, has staked out a hardline position as a staunch federalist and defender of Canadian identity, accusing Smith of playing 'stupid separatist games ' and calling Alberta separatism an 'extremist fringe agenda.' Article content Nenshi's Alberta NDP has also launched the website to mobilize opposition to the premier. Article content Brown added that Albertans are currently giving Prime Minister Mark Carney 'the benefit of the doubt' and holding out to see if he and Smith are able to strike a deal on national unity. Article content The survey showed Smith's United Conservative Party leading across all age demographic and on-track to win a commanding 17-seat majority in the next provincial election. Article content The poll was taken between May 7 and 21, using a random sample of 1,200 Albertans contacted by phone (40 per cent landline, 60 per cent cell phone), carrying a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.8 per cent, 19 times out of 20. Article content
Calgary Herald
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Bell: In Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith kicks Nenshi NDP butt
What do we have here? Article content Article content CBC News has a poll by the noted pollster Janet Brown and it hits the street with a bang. Article content Well, they will be in full-blown denial or they will believe many Albertans are just too stupid to understand what's good for them. Article content Back in the real world, if there was an election now, Smith and the UCP would win the support of most Albertans. Article content Article content Projected seats in the Alberta legislature? Article content Article content Smith's UCP 61 seats. Naheed Nenshi's NDP 26 seats. Article content Take note. Brown, the pollster, is known for being real solid on these kind of projections. Article content Now the NDP and UCP are virtually neck and neck in the provincial capital. Oh my. Article content In Calgary, the NDP are also down and some NDP seats in Calgary would almost certainly fall to Smith and the UCP. Article content Younger voters and not so young voters are more UCP than NDP. Article content Many Albertans also appear to like Smith standing up for Alberta and taking the fight to Ottawa over Liberal anti-oil policies. Article content It is Nenshi who slams Smith saying the premier likes to pick fights. Article content Looks like this fight with Ottawa is considered a righteous one. Article content Article content Aside from this latest nosecount, this scribbler also notices some of the people who weren't sure about Smith a couple years back, after hearing from the opposition about how dangerous she would be in power, are now more comfortable with the premier. Article content The sky has not fallen. Article content They were warned turning the NDP into the Nenshi Democratic Party might not work.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CBC News poll looks at Alberta's political leaders, top issues for Albertans and separation
A new poll commissioned by CBC News provides a fresh look at how Albertans feel about matters like separation, provincial political leaders and issues such as inflation and health care. The survey was conducted by Trend Research under the direction of Janet Brown Opinion Research. The CBC's Bryan Labby spoke with Janet Brown about the poll's findings.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Poll finds Albertans' attachment to Canada has grown as support for separatism has hardened
Like many Albertans, Michelle Schamehorn was disappointed by the Liberal victory in last month's federal election. But she's not on board with the escalating rhetoric surrounding Alberta separation. "For me, no. I don't want to separate," said the resident of Taber, Alta., who works at a local truck dealership and feels most Canadian when she's snowshoeing in the mountains. "I'm proud to be Canadian. Very, very proud to be Canadian." She remains squarely in the majority in this province, according to new polling commissioned by CBC News, which asked a random sample of 1,200 people across Alberta their views on a variety of topics. When it came to the question of whether Alberta would be better off if it separated from Canada, 67 per cent disagreed while 30 per cent agreed. The result was almost identical to a similar poll that asked the same question five years earlier. One thing that has changed, however, is the strength of support among the Alberta separatists. In May 2020, only 12 per cent "strongly" agreed. By May 2025, that had grown to 17 per cent. The poll also found a shift in public opinion at the other end of the spectrum. Asked whether they feel more attachment to Alberta or to Canada, 34 per cent now picked their country over their province. That's up from just 20 per cent five years ago. There was little change in those who feel more attachment to Alberta over that same time, while the proportion of those who said "both equally" shrunk substantially. "So, I think we're seeing polarization on both ends," said pollster Janet Brown, who conducted the public-opinion research for CBC News. "When it comes to separation, we're seeing that the number of people who strongly agree with separation is increasing," Brown said. "On the other side, we see the people who are attached to Canada, we see that group growing. The more we talk about separation, the more people are saying that they feel attached to Canada." On a straight ballot question, meanwhile, 28 per cent of Albertans said in the latest polling that they'd vote to separate if a referendum were held today, compared to 67 per cent who would vote against separation. Five per cent said they weren't sure. Trump effect CBC News visited Taber recently to ask people in Alberta's Conservative heartland about what Canada means to them after the rhetoric around separation kicked up. Several residents said they weren't ready to give up on Canada yet, despite their disappointment at seeing the Liberals win a fourth consecutive election. Schamehorn said she's not a very political person, but the combination of the election defeat, talk of independence and the U.S. tariffs shocked her. It's made her pay more attention, she said, and she doesn't believe Alberta should pick up and walk away in frustration. "We're Canada. We're Alberta. And we need to figure this out," she said. "We have countries that are trying to destroy us right now. And we can't let that happen. We have to figure out how to be strong, together." Brown, the pollster, says the recent tariffs and annexation threats from U.S. President Donald Trump have had a distinct effect on how Albertans view their province and their country. "When you look deeper at the data, there definitely is a connection there," she said. "One of the questions we asked was how stressed out people were about U.S.-Canada trade relations. And it seems like society here in Alberta is breaking into two groups: those people who are very preoccupied with tariffs and those people who aren't that preoccupied with tariffs. In fact, they are more preoccupied with Ottawa than they are with Washington." Albertans who feel stressed by the trade war expressed significantly higher attachment to Canada in the recent polling. Those who said they weren't stressed by it, in contrast, expressed significantly higher attachment to Alberta. 'I guess I'm more Canadian' Rick Tams works with Schamehorn at a truck dealership in Taber. He puts himself in the Canadian-first camp, but with a pretty big asterisk attached. "We are a member of a country first and I live in the province of Alberta, so I guess I'm more Canadian," he said. "But that being said, there's a gap within our own country. It's flawed." Tams says he's been frustrated by the past 10 years of Liberal government in Ottawa, in particular when it comes to deficit spending, oil-and-gas regulations and the lack of follow-through on once-promised electoral reform. He says he's seen, first hand, how that's hardened some Albertans' attitudes toward separation. "In the circles I travel in, I think a referendum would have a chance," he said. "That doesn't mean we have to leave. But it does mean people have got to start paying attention." As for himself? "I would like to see just a whole lot more information before there was a vote," Tams said. Political implications Brown says the polling results show a "yes" vote in a hypothetical referendum on separation would almost certainly fail, but at the same time reveal a "sizeable minority of people who are serious about this idea." "You just can't call this a fringe idea anymore," she said. "It's a strong sentiment in the population." The political implications are far-reaching, she added, especially for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Brown noted the poll results show Alberta NDP supporters are almost universally opposed to separation, while 54 per cent of UCP supporters said they would vote in favour of it, if a referendum were held today. "Danielle Smith is dealing with a voter base that's split on the issue of separatism, while [NDP Leader] Naheed Nenshi is looking at a voter base who is single-minded on this issue," Brown said. "So that makes it much more challenging for Danielle Smith to manage her way through this." At the same time, Brown said further data from the latest poll suggests Smith is "doing a better job speaking to the middle group — the group who's both attached to Canada and attached to Alberta." "That group maybe wants a new deal from Ottawa but doesn't want to separate," Brown said. "And she is speaking to that group, and I don't think the NDP is yet speaking to that group." The details of that aspect of the poll results — which party is leading in popular support, and why — will be the topic of the next story in this series, which will be published later Wednesday. EDITOR'S NOTE: CBC News commissioned this public opinion research to be conducted immediately following the federal election and leading into the second anniversary of the United Conservative Party's provincial election win in May 2023. As with all polls, this one provides a snapshot in time. This analysis is one in a series of articles from this research. More stories will follow. Methodology: The CBC News random survey of 1,200 Albertans was conducted using a hybrid method from May 7 to 21, 2025, by Edmonton-based Trend Research under the direction of Janet Brown Opinion Research. The sample is representative of regional, age and gender factors. The margin of error is +/- 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. For subsets, the margin of error is larger. The survey used a hybrid methodology that involved contacting survey respondents by telephone and giving them the option of completing the survey at that time, at another more convenient time, or receiving an email link and completing the survey online. Trend Research contacted people using a random list of numbers, consisting of 40 per cent landlines and 60 per cent cellphone numbers. Telephone numbers were dialled up to five times at five different times of day before another telephone number was added to the sample. The response rate among valid numbers (i.e., residential and personal) was 12.8 per cent.
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Mother Courage and her Children review – wartime profiteering rarely sounded so good
The noise is constant. It is in the eight marimbas lined up across the stage, which add a South African bounce to Bertolt Brecht's 1939 epic of the thirty years' war. It is in the operatic songs, all lush harmonies and pulsing percussion. And it is in the vocal effects of the large cast, adding birdsong or insect rhythms to the battlefields. Sometimes it is in the crackle of a plastic bottle to suggest fire, the shuddering boom of a drum to indicate an execution, or the grind of hands across metal for machine-gun fire. All of it is generated by the actors, much like the set, by the ensemble with Janet Brown and Eve Booth: a resourceful collection of corrugated iron, wooden pallets, old tyres and buckets. It gives Mark Dornford-May's production an in-built theatricality: each performance created anew. But suddenly the noise stops and the silence is piercing. The moment comes when Paulina Malefane's no-nonsense Mother Courage faces her greatest threat. With heavy irony, it is not the conscription of her first son (Brodie Daniel), the execution of the second (Joseph Hammal), nor even the rape and mutilation of her daughter (Noluthando Boqwana-Page). All those she regards as the cost of doing business; collateral damage in the pursuit of profit as she buys and sells from the back of her cart to the highest military bidder. No, what sucks the air out of her is the outbreak of peace. No war, no trade, no noise. The respite is temporary, of course. Neither war nor capitalism can rest for long. But the icy silence is a highlight of a gutsy production, filleted down to an economical 90 minutes by playwright Lee Hall, who translated the play for Shared Experience in 2000, and marking the welcome debut of Ensemble '84, a company drawn from the environs of Horden, a former mining village in County Durham overlooking the North Sea. In collaboration with Johannesburg's Isango Ensemble, the actors are forthright and physical, building a sense of community not just in the makeup of the newly formed company but in the implication that war, like money, draws every one of us helplessly in. At Horden Methodist Church until 24 May
